Testing: The Results!

Once we’d completed all of the testing, Pat called us into a meeting in his office, where we sat down with him and Medical Director Ciaran Friel, looked at the numbers, and set concrete goals for improvement. Each of us had come to La Palestra with a few specific fitness goals in mind—Dan wanted to lose some weight and acquire better fitness habits; Devin wanted to rehab a wonky shoulder and shift his body compensation from fat to muscle; Mark wanted to increase his pace when running and strengthen his legs for skiing—and the plan was that Ciaran would take our goals, and the goals Pat laid out for us, and come up with three custom programs designed to achieve them.

But first thing’s first: The numbers. Click through for a chart of how we each did in the various tests.

Actually, one more thing before the numbers: There’s a lot of information in here, but don’t feel daunted by it. If you’ve gone through the tests yourself, you can look at our numbers and compare them to yours to see how you stack up; are you starting from where Dan started? Or from where Devin started? Next week, we’ll post the three custom workout programs, and you can follow the program that’s closest to your starting point. (Or, of course, you can just pick and choose ercises to add to your current routine.)

In the table below, numbers highlighted in dark yellow are those that Pat targeted for improvement. Continue reading past the table for a person-by-person breakdown of exactly what we were setting out to improve.

Note on the back/chest strength ratio: The number in the chart was calculated by using our body weights and the number of pull-up repetitions to get a value for back strength equivalent to a bench press for chest. To simplify things, consider doing back rows on a machine as a counterpoint to the chest press; if you take the ratio of your three-rep chest press max to your three-rep row max, you’ll have a good sense of how strong your back is relative to your chest.

Dan:

First things first, Pat wanted to know how much I’d been working out prior to the evaluation. When I responded "Not at all," I could tell that he considered my potential for improvement to be significant. I would be working out 100% more often than I had been, which meant that even a little effort should result in significant gains. Pat broke down each specific activity ("32 crunches? I want you at 75 after twelve weeks.") More generally, though, he wanted me to:

Reduce body fat and weight. Pat set the reasonable goal of dropping 4% body fat and six pounds over twelve weeks, or a half-pound per week. To lose that half-pound, I’d need to reduce my intake by 1,750-calories each week (as 3,500 calories typically translates to one pound of weight). Half of this reduction would come from eating less (see my nutrition post for more information), and half would come from ercise. The idea was that if I could lose the weight, my other numbers (body fat %, waist-to-hip ratio) would improve.

Increase upper-body strength. While all of my numbers were less impressive than I’d have liked them to have been, none embarrassed me quite like the upper-body strength ercises. The chest press and pull-up moves were absolutely dismal ("One pull-up? ONE?!")—but Pat assured me that since I’d never really worked them out before, it wouldn’t take much effort on my part before seeing marked improvement.

Focus on general core strength. Even at one’s laziest, it doesn’t take much time or space to knock out a set of body-weight crunches. But like all things, a "now and again" approach to working the core doesn’t quite cut it. To address this concern, each of my workouts during the twelve weeks would begin with a series of basic isometric poses—the front plank, side planks, and bridge (back plank)—that would target my abdominals, hips, and back.

My weight was fine at 169. But Pat suggested that I should change my body composition. Depending on which method was being used to measure it, my percent body fat was up at 17 percent. That needed to drop down to 14%. To do that, I’d have to gain strength and muscle mass. I also have a bad shoulder—a torn labrum that I’d had diagnosed five years ago but never did anything about that. Pat suggested another MRI and then doing real rehab on it so it’s not a chronic problem for the rest of my life. I also had plantar fasciitis in my right food, which I should be able to get rid of by changing my running stride. I was good on sit ups, leg press and bench, but my push-up numbers were weak—I could do only 37 in a row, and should be able do at least 20 more.

But there was a macro problem I had to address, which was responsible for all these micro fitness problems. I’d stopped ercising completely once my kid was born. And now that I was trying to get back into it, I had a completely different life —different schedule, different priorities, different amount of energy. I was going to have to learn how to fit ercise into my life again—and to figure out what kind of role I’d want it to have.

Of the three of us, I came into the challenge with the most recent workout experience (I’m sure Devin could’ve thrashed me at just about any ercise back when he was swimming in high school, but since his baby was born, advantage me.) So the trick was going to be finding enough volume and variety to produce a noticeable improvement from basic level of fitness I’ve kept for years. I had a few specific things I wanted to work on—getting stronger in my legs so I could learn to telemark ski this winter, decreasing my half-marathon time—but more than anything else, I was just looking for La Palestra to push me through the barriers my regular ercise habits had created.

Pat looked at my numbers and suggested a few specific areas for improvement (more pull-ups, increased leg strength), but more than anything, he focused in on my balance and proprioception. I play sports—soccer, football, skiing—and have had chronic issues with my right ankle for years. (The result of too many sprains in high school). Pat suggested that they’d be able to design a program that would increase my overall strength and endurance while also focusing on the little muscle groups that surround your joints. By strengthening them, and improving my coordination in various movements, I’d be able both to improve my athletic performance and decrease my chances of future injury.

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